Cellular telephony networks have been adapted to carry Internet data traffic, but the ongoing rapid increase in data demand by the growing population of smartphones and similar mobile devices has placed heavy burdens on the ability of cellular networks to handle the data traffic. In response to this challenge, cellular operators have implemented technologies for off-loading data traffic from cellular networks onto other networks. Solutions include private offloading systems set up by cellular operators, public non-cellular wireless Internet connections by arrangement with various commercial entities, open networks established by municipalities and public areas such as shopping malls, and similar setups to accommodate mobile users.
An important and developing area for offloading cellular data traffic now centers on the vehicle market. Currently, a vehicle may be equipped with on-board integrated cellular connectivity, non-cellular wireless Internet connectivity, GPS, and infotainment capabilities. From a data perspective such a vehicle is considered as a “vehicle telematics entity” or a “connected vehicle”. A vehicle so-equipped may now be able to provide additional access points to mobile device users for cellular offloading.
It is important to note that cellular offloading does not necessarily require elimination of data transport over cellular networks. A vehicular access point may often rely on a cellular network to provide backhaul services. Even then, however, the vehicular access point can frequently reduce the net data load on the cellular network. The vehicle is capable of establishing a much higher-quality data connection with the cellular network than a mobile user device, on account of having a better antenna, a more powerful cellular transmitter, and more available power than a mobile user device. Thus, the vehicle can consolidate a number of data users into a single high-quality data connection in place of many data connections of ordinary or marginal quality, thereby reducing consumption of resources and minimizing overhead and transmission data losses associated with the many data connections. Therefore, the term “cellular offloading” herein denotes any redistribution of data traffic that results in an overall decrease in the data load on a cellular network. Thus, by transferring a number of users to non-cellular connections, a vehicular access point can perform cellular offloading, even when using the cellular network for backhaul of the consolidated data traffic.
There are two user regimes for which a connected vehicle may provide an access point:                Internal users: An access point for users riding within the moving vehicle (driver and/or passengers).        External users: A public access point for users, such as pedestrians, outside the vehicle when it is stationary.        
Unfortunately, there are currently no available methods or systems to enable a connected vehicle to reliably and safely provide an access point for either internal users or external users. Current restrictions are as follows:                Current methods and systems to automatically locate and connect to cellular offload access points for user mobile devices typically rely on access point maps, which are collected and disseminated for use with automated systems and software applications (“apps”) that manage offload connections for the mobile user devices. As noted elsewhere herein, although such access point maps are typically updated on an on-going basis, they cannot be updated fast enough or reliably enough to track access points associated with vehicles. An access point of a connected vehicle lacks a persistent location and therefore should never be added to an access point map, because doing so will infect the access-point map with false location data. Currently, therefore, a user device connecting to a vehicular access point of a vehicle poses a risk that the device may automatically update a remote server with information about the access point, thereby causing the access point database to become infected.        In addition, for internal users, user mobile devices are typically provided, via download, with policies that govern the establishing of non-cellular wireless Internet connections. Such policies may cause a user device in a connected vehicle to automatically seek a connection to an access point outside the vehicle, rather than to the vehicular access point provided by the connected vehicle.        There is also a problem that a user device located outside of a connected vehicle may attempt to connect to the vehicular access point. In addition to the risk of access point map infection, this is liable to burden the vehicular access point with additional load without providing reliable service to the connecting user device.        Furthermore, a vehicular access point may be exposed to unauthorized connections.        
Vehicular access points can provide valuable wireless coverage for offloading user mobile devices from cellular networks onto non-cellular networks, and it would therefore be highly desirable to have a method by which user devices can automatically be made aware of vehicular access points and be automatically connected thereto, without the risks of unauthorized connections and infecting access point databases, and, in the case of user devices inside a connected vehicle, without being automatically connected to outside access points instead. These goals are met by embodiments of the present invention.